Keith Arnold

As the run up to the 2011 season continues, various postseason awards announced their preseason watch lists, a good starting point for spirited debate, if not a decent predictor as to who is going to win the award. Ten Irish players are named, with Manti Te’o and Michael Floyd leading the way with four and…

Think back to last summer. Notre Dame fans hypothesized what the Irish defense would look like as it shifted back to a 3-4 alignment. One position Notre Dame fans felt fairly confident about was outside linebacker. On one side, Darius Fleming, one of the Irish’s top defenders, was going back to a position that fit…

It only took days for Notre Dame fans to cling to one of Brian Kelly’s first bits of coach speak. When asked about recruiting, one of the Irish’s new head coach’s perceived weak spots, Kelly uttered the term “Right Kinda Guys,” which instantly became preferred nomenclature for the recruits the former Grand Valley State, Central…

If Romeo Okwara can step onto campus and make the same type of impact as the last linebacker from Ardrey Kell High School, Brian Kelly and Bob Diaco are going to be very happy. As rumors swirled around other more familiar names in the recruiting derby this weekend, Romeo Okwara, who hails from the same…

If you’ve been clamoring for more coverage on “The Opening,” Nike’s foray into the 7-on-7, recruiting world/hype machine, there’s plenty of places on the internet that’ll satisfy your needs. (My personal favorite right now is the Nike official website, where they show actual laser-recorded 40-yard dash times, which helps get rid of some of the…

While the writing has been on the wall for a few weeks, quarterback Maty Mauk made it official when he verbally committed to Missouri. Mauk was one of Brian Kelly’s first offers at quarterback, and Mauk picked the Tigers over Michigan, Notre Dame and Illinois. Mauk’s highlights have been message-board fodder for months, with the…

Up until a few weeks ago, gigantic defensive lineman Jarron Jones liked what the Irish coaching staff was telling him, but he had no frame of reference. The 6-foot-6, 305-pound blue-chipper from Rochester, New York was committed to Penn State, but still planned on visiting Notre Dame and seeing first hand what the Irish were…

It’s getting difficult to ignore the trajectory this offseason is taking. Quite simply, Year Two of the Brian Kelly era has expectations. Great expectations. Eric Hansen expectations. Even Mark May expectations. Because it’s July, it’s that time of year where we spend most of our time analyzing the past in hopes of predicting the future.…

Compare today to running an offseason marathon. No doubt, we are slogging along here, but the good news is we’ve just passed the 13-mile marker. We’re more than half-way there, and while that terrible realization that you’ve still got 13 miles left to run might cross your mind, the very good news is that we’re…

If you’re looking at the Irish roster, you’ll notice there’s one particularly important position that could use a little bit of padding. After focusing on quarterbacks and defensive ends in their first two recruiting classes, Brian Kelly and his offensive staff have spent most of this recruiting cycle identifying running backs and casting a wide…

It appears the legal portion of Michael Floyd’s wayward journey back to the football field is complete. The senior wide receiver appeared in St. Joseph County Traffic and Misdemeanor Court and pleaded guilty to one count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. According to multiple reports, Floyd’s driver’s license will be suspended 90 days. He’ll…

It turns out it didn’t take a few weeks to make a college decision. Over the weekend, just days after earning his way to a scholarship offer, John Turner pulled the trigger, committing to Notre Dame. “It was just a perfect fit,” Turner told the South Bend Tribune. “Every time I came up I fell…

In a ceremony held before an overflow crowd, Grand Valley State University unveiled The Kelly Family Sports Center, renaming the 138,000 square foot sports building in honor of its former head football coach. Brian Kelly was the head football coach at Grand Valley for 13 seasons, leading the Lakers to a 118-35-2 record, and two…

As the recruiting cycle gets earlier and earlier, the summer football camp has turned from an evaluation tool to a last chance for rising senior recruits. With Notre Dame already out to almost 100 prospects, you can’t help but pull for guys like Indianapolis safety John Turner, who came to Notre Dame’s summer camp with…

The Notre Dame football family lost a member unexpectedly when former defensive end Andre Jones, a member of Notre Dame’s last national championship team in 1988, passed away after suffered a brain aneurysm. He left behind his wife Michelle and five children, including son TJ, a rising sophomore on the Notre Dame football team. Here’s…

It’s human nature to want to paint with a wide brush. You cover more ground, get your point across quicker, and it’s far more enjoyable to slap a roller across a wall than deal with the tiny corner of trim that you need to cover with blue tape and wrench your back to get just…

With a tip of the cap to Frank over at UHND.com and as we get ready to embark on another fun offseason exercise of projecting the Top 25 players on the Irish roster, I wanted to follow up on his series that’s been going on here, here, here and here. In what likely will be…

It’ll likely be months until anybody is certain what the fate of Ohio State football will be, but that hasn’t stopped people from talking about it. If you’re looking for some context, Michigan blog MGoBlog.com revels in the comparison to USC (their conclusion: “Yeah, you guys are screwed), a benchmark that’ll likely be referenced a…

I’m a few days late linking to Bill Connelly’s season preview of the Fighting Irish, but I can always blame the research needed to simply understand what Connelly is actually talking about for the delay. Connelly is part of the wonderful team at FootballOutsiders.com, taking “innovative statistics and intelligent analysis,” two things that always trump…

Today was an important day for Notre Dame football and it had nothing to do with practice or team workouts. The Kelly Cares Foundation welcomed their second class of Football 101, a women’s event that benefits breast cancer awareness and prevention. The event also provided the media a chance to get a roster update from…

I’ve been pretty open about Notre Dame’s need to embrace redshirts. Whether they continue to ignore the term, a fifth-year of college football is an incredibly important opportunity for not just linemen, but also skill position players as well. (If you don’t believe me, consider Harrison Smith’s transformation from defensive liability to team captain and…

I can count on zero fingers the amount of times that I’ve won money wagering on Notre Dame football, but some early betting lines on the college football season are out and it looks like the early money likes the Irish. The Golden Nugget released its early lines for the season and of the Irish…

After much discussion and debate, Notre Dame and Michigan have unveiled their throwback uniforms for the September 10 meeting between the Irish and Wolverines. Deemed “Under the Lights at the Big House” (Bravo Michigan marketing department), both teams strutted their retro look with official releases yesterday. The Irish are going psuedo old school, with the…

Strange days lie ahead for the Big Ten, or whatever they’re officially calling the conference right now. (B1G?) As news broke that North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson could be taking his talents to Madison, it solidified the fact that there’s near historic instability around the Midwest in college football, a recipe that should help…

(Ed. Note: Photo is property of Ryan Call.) It’s not every day that the Irish pick up a recruit from their own backyard, but Notre Dame reeled in commitment number ten from South Bend’s Washington High School, with linebacker-running back-athlete David Perkins announcing his intent this afternoon. Perkins chose the Irish over Tennessee and Syracuse…